LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The race for chief justice has made a lot of headlines with recent Arkansas Supreme Court decisions, which illuminates a clear contrast for voters between Associate Justice Karen Baker and Associate Justice Rhonda Wood.
The two are facing off for the position after the race ended in a runoff during the March elections. In that race, Baker finished with 27% of the vote while Wood had 26% of the vote with 2,711 votes separating the two.
When it came to allowing the abortion access proposal onto the ballot, Wood handed down the 4-3 opinion while Baker wrote a dissent.
In that ruling, Wood said that Secretary of State John Thurston "correctly refused" to count signatures collected by paid canvassers due to the sponsor's failure to file training certification. The ruling also stated the group behind the ballot measure was not entitled to further relief, which meant it would not make the November ballot.
Baker in her dissent quoted the state motto which translates to "the people rule" and claimed that the ruling stripped "every Arkansan" of the power to put initiatives onto the election ballot.
"The majority has reconfigured the relevant statute in order to cater the initiative process to the preference of the respondent while this process is the first power reserved for the people," Baker said.
While the majority opinion on the abortion measure stated the court can't rewrite statues, Baker alleges the justices did that "multiple times to achieve a particular result."
The two were also on opposite sides when it came to an issue regarding a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the emails of Associate Justice Courtney Hudson.
That 5-2 ruling voided a lower court lawsuit that was filed by Hudson, saying that court did not have jurisdiction in what was being called an "internal administrative issue." The ruling would subject both Hudson and her attorney to an ethics probe for "flagrant breaches of confidentiality and the public trust."
Baker called the majority ruling on the emails and calling for an ethics review for Hudson a breach of public trust that was an "unprecedented misuse of our authority" and suggested the justices should also face an ethics review.
The justice alleges in her dissent that the "majority has, once again, chosen to liberate itself from the shackles of our longstanding precedent and the plain language of statutory law in order to reach a particular result."
Regardless of who wins the race, both will continue to serve on the state's highest court until their terms end. But the winner of the race will create a vacancy on the court, which will allow Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to appoint a justice to serve.
The governor has previously stated she is proud to "build the first conservative Supreme Court majority" in Arkansas.
